Sunday, December 30, 2007

1000 Days at Sea

For further updates - Please visit:www.1000Days.netComment posting is reenabled on this site. Comments are moderated and will take time to appear. This way, people following the voyage can discuss and contribute.

It's day 265 and sail repairs are underway again. Will the sails last another 735 days? What happens if a new sail is needed? Too bad this isn't more of a travelogue - without visiting land and without proper scientific instruments (like even a water temperature gauge) or reference texts to provide some interesting reading, things are boringly tedious for everyone -not only for Soanya (who is very young to be so isolated for such a long period of time).

Sail on Reid & Soanya. Your courage, determination and perserverance are inspiring. Unfortunately your friends at home do not have nearly as much drive as they can't keep a blog running properly for a year let alone three. Glad to see comments are back. Maybe there is some hope for this and it will get back up and running. If not it is a shame. I'll keep tabs on the regular site.

Hi guys, I've been watching your progress from the start. Your doing great - conquering all the problems, and taking it one day at a time. As an ex USN submarine sailor, I know it can get tedious out there. Hope you have a few good books to read. Do you miss fresh milk and eggs? I bet you miss a lot of things. Anyway, it's a great adventure, and a great endeavor. I'm pulling hard for you both. (Dale in Texas)

I am sorry, I missed why the blog (RSS feed) was stopped. It's much easier (for me and I assume others) to read from an RSS reader rather than to visit the web site and try and determine which posts we haven't read. Can someone please explain why it was stopped and why it can't be started again?

With regards to the voyage - amazing and all the best too you both. I was thinking about the regular routine that you seem to follow day in and day out. What about taking a break? A holiday of sorts? Stop somewhere nice (away from land etc.) and have a rest? Everyone needs a break :-)

There are many of us who have followed Reid & Soanya from the very start but never write anything. Not a day goes by that I don't check this site to find out what Reid & Soanya have been up to.I just bought a 38ft sailboat and plan to circumnavigate the world, of course I will be resting on land every so often. It is of great importance for me to find out what kind of daily things happen out there and to see how Reid handle's them, it could save my life some day. So Reid and Soanya, keep up the great work and God bless you with a fair wind, clear skies, and bright stars to guide you on to Victory.Tony

Dear Reid & Soanya:I was just thinking that in the event of an emergency, you would probably have to head for land, somewhere -- which got me wondering: did both of you think to ensure you had a current passport when leaving New York? Not trying to sound like a mother hen or anything but just curious...

I, like many, many others have been following this amazing experience from the very first day.....and also have never written anything except 2 congratulatory Emails for the first 100 & 200 days. Until now...I have to add my thanks to "Ed." for reenabling the blog. We, (most of us sane people, that is) can recognise the BS when we see it & ignore it. We only read the interesting stuff, & I'm sure R & S do the same?So...to the whole 1000days team: please never forget those of us who appreciate everything that you do to keep this whole show going!!Love & Light from "the silent majority!"

I was also happy that the blog came back, but it appears that Squawk is the intended recipient of the messages here. No questions answered, no comments from the Anne, no feedback from the shore team.

This voyage was sold to the press, donors and sponsors as being educational. Goal number 4 for the voyage, for instance, states:

"We can increase our knowledge of the southern oceans through daily recordings of water, air temperatures, wind speeds, water and atmospheric pollution and ozone depletion. Through these records we will gain insight into our ultimate dependence on our environment."

Apparently they don't even have a thermometer to measure water temperature or an instrument to measure wind speed. Are we to believe that they're collecting data on pollution and ozone? They didn't even know an albatross when they saw it for the first time.

Can anyone here provide us with one single thing that they have accomplished of any worth? Can anyone point out a single one of their stated goals that they've accomplished?

Blogs should be interactive. This blog is nothing more than dropping notes into a void.

we've followed this blog since the beginning of their journey & have seen enough of the ups & downs to understand what a difficult task it is to manage it. we appreciate all that you do including once again allowing comments.

we believe it's a wonderfully generous thing for R&S to allow us to follow along on their adventure. we enjoy the more detailed postings -- technical info, their daily routine, meals & especially observations on their relationship given the isolation of this experience. lately, the posts have much less detail/information. have the demands of the southern ocean drastically changed their daily routine? more information would be appreciated!

R&S - you've given everyone a link to an alternate blog but it won't open. Can you fix or advise which blog is going to be kept current. Thanks and watch out for whales - they're on the run down there!

I know you believe you're eating a healthy diet but aren't you concerned about the excessive salt content of your fish and condiments or the dangers associated with very old provisions? Did a dietician work with you to determine proper provisioning for this voyage or are you relying on past experience?

Reid says, "Our educational intentions never quite materialized as the years went by, but now that we are out here, we are sharing our story as live as possible and we have gotten a surprising assortment of people and groups from around the world that are following us. We have heard from children, mothers, fathers, teachers, a prison counselor, a prayer group, our troops in Iraq, space psychologists and many more."

It would be interesting if this blog became what it used to be again - with the comments posted regularly. Is there a different blog site where the comments from all the followers Reid identifies are posted?

Your query regarding whether R & S have passports was not from a worried "mother hen" -- it seems you are attempting to imply that they do not have passports. Even asking about it is condescending. I suppose only someone as smart as you would think of such a practical matter!

I have been following the daily journals from Day 1. I never knew there was a blog, but I think it's great. Reid and Soanye are truly an inspiration for their courage, mental and physical strength and loving natures. Best of luck in your future!

reports of things breaking, main water tanks empty and references to needing to remind themselves to be "loving"...sounds like things are not going as well as they had previously. at what point do the empty water tanks become a crisis?? i also would like to hear more specifics about how there relationship is holding up after months of virtually total isolation. as for the nausea...could she be pregnant?? i'm not trying to sound pesimistic, i'm just very concerned. i would love to hear more detailed reports than what we have been getting. are they still catching fish occassionally? how do they pass the time and what do they do to keep their spirits up during this period of endless grey days? as always, we wish for them a smooth, safe journey.

On my last look at the position map of ANNE I notice that Australia is getting closer each day. It seems that a course change is due soon or they will make landfall in a few more days. I may be reading the position wrong or Ried has a change in store that he is'nt letting us in on it.Maybe there should be a 24 hour lookout for land..

I hope everything is ok. Reid and Soanya seem to be making a bee-line to Aus. even though he has repaired his sail. Has anyone been in contact with them recently? I hope there is no emergency that is causing them to abort the mission prematurely.

I am very surprised to see the Schooner Anne come so close to land, especially now with the threat of extreme weather in the offing.

Reid is an experienced enough sailor, whom I would think very capable of keeping his boat further from shore, despite the variable and at times unfavorable winds, if he so desired. Since the main is now in tatters, and the old replacement main from the hold admittedly not in the best of shape by any means, is it possible he is purposefully seeking to be not too far from shore at this time?

The fact of an old main in need of repair, 700 Days left, and evidently a bad storm in the area are not a good convergence at this time. Perhaps it would actually be best to ride this out without a mainsail up at all, and depend on the engine if necessary to keep a decent distance from the shoreline of the continent to which they find themselves so close at this moment in time.

Closer to shore than this they have not been since shortly after they left Hoboken, according to Metocean and Google Earth.

Why don't more people post on this? It would be much more interesting to read everyone's feedback on the daily issues. Such as....by the "ruler" calculations on Google Earth, they are less than 50 miles away from shore. What's going on?

How totally relieved I am that you, dear Soanya, are heading back to land and to NYC via air rather than another ship! God bless your courageous spirit! You are a model! You will always be "Soanya of the Seven Seas" to me.

I have followed the good ship the schooner Anne from day one as she sails onward and in time safely back to her home port after a fully successful Mars 1000 Day Odyssey. May Mary, Star of the Sea, protect him all the way.

I just read Reid's Day 316 post about the symbolic shark. I was curious and when I did a little research I read that some Polynesian and Asian societies believed sharks were gods. They symbolized "hunter, adaptablity, survival" -- pretty good signs for a long sea voyage.

Wolf's Moon has a nice discussion of the symbolism of sharks as animal totems.

http://wolfs_moon.tripod.com/ShadowShark.html

Blessings to Reid on his water journey and Soanya on her land journey. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences.